Baker College panel urges students to vote

Don Torline, president of Baker College at Clinton Township, talks to about 100 students at a voter rally on Monday that included a panel discussion by state Rep. Marilyn Lane, Roseville City Councilman Mickey Switalski, and Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel. Macomb Daily staff photo by Ray J. Skowronek

Encouraging people to leave behind toxic partisan rhetoric and focus on researching issues and candidates for themselves was the topic of a voter rally at Baker College of Clinton Township on Monday afternoon.

More than 100 students attended the event, which was sponsored by the college’s social studies club, and featured a panel discussion and handouts detailing the six statewide proposals along with financing requests by Macomb Community College and several local governments that will go before voters on Nov. 6.

“My goal is to draw up awareness,” said Stephen Anderson, who heads up the social studies department at the college. “Some of these people in the end may not vote, but it won’t be because they were not informed. We are not here to tell them who to vote for, but how to find out who to vote for.”

Anderson urged students to combine online research with websites such as politifact.com with attending candidate forums to learn more about local, county, state and federal public policy issues that will shape the future course of the country.

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A panel discussion followed involving Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, state Rep. Marilyn Lane, D-Clinton Township, and Roseville City Councilman Mickey Switalski, a former state legislator.

All three stressed the importance of voting.

“Whoever you decide to vote for, just vote,” said Hackel, who spoke of learning how to follow politics beginning when he was in the ninth grade and his father, William Hackel, was running for county sheriff.

Lane, the former mayor of Fraser, urged voters to apply for absentee ballots so they can take their time to thoroughly consider every question on the ballot and avoid feeling rushed at the polling booth.

“Even myself, who has been doing this for years and years, when I get to the booth, I feel like I only have 10 seconds and everyone is looking at me and I’m supposed to know it all. Now more than ever, take a ballot home, take your time and do it right,” she said.

Likewise, Switalski confessed he was intimidated by the lever in the voting booth on his initial experience, worried that if he pulled the lever the wrong way, he’d erase all of the previous votes. He also spoke in favor of the dedicated precinct workers who work from 7 a.m. until 8 p.m. on election day for $140, and the campaign workers who often sit alone outside of precincts, hoping to make last-minute influences on voters.

“As President Bush once said, you are the decider,” Switalski said.

The panel’s urging was not lost on the students who collected the handouts and asked additional questions after the rally.

One student who is voting for the first time said the information was valuable. Herman Kleinovermeer, 46, of Shelby Township, a native of the Netherlands, said after living in the United States for more than 20 years, he finally registered to vote this year.

“I don’t want to sit on the sidelines anymore,” he said. “I want to be in the game.”